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Counting Crows kick off Derby

Counting Crows kick off Home Run Derby

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By Doug Miller
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MLB.com |

For millions of music fans in Northern California and all over America, a live Counting Crows performance is not just a home run. It's a Barry Bonds no-doubter straight into the welcoming waters of McCovey Cove.

The band, which formed in the early 1990s in Berkeley, Calif., and shot to stardom on the strength of its 1993 debut album, August and Everything After, and its ubiquitous hit single, "Mr. Jones," has sold more than 20 million albums worldwide, garnered an Academy Award nomination, and is still going strong.

On Monday night, July 9, the Counting Crows will enjoy an historic homecoming on the eve of the 78th All-Star Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco, and you can watch it live right here at MLB.com.

The band and its charismatic frontman, notorious Bay Area sports fan Adam Duritz, will perform right before the long balls start leaving the yard -- and hopefully entering the Bay -- in the State Farm Home Run Derby, and we'll stream one of their songs and the Home Run Derby as they happen.

ESPN airtime for the Derby is 8 p.m. ET, so make sure to check it early at MLB.com to hear Duritz and the Crows. And if you happen to miss the live broadcast, don't worry, because we'll have it on demand at MLB.com after it occurs.

But that's not the only Counting Crows news to report for this All-Star Weekend and this baseball season.

Crows lead guitarist David Bryson will take part in the Legends and Celebrity Softball Game at AT&T on Sunday, July 8, and soon after the regular Major League Baseball season resumes, the Crows will hit the road for an epic tour -- alongside fellow platinum rock acts Live and Collective Soul -- with yet another baseball tie-in.

It's called the Rock 'N Roll Triple Play Ballpark Tour, and it's kicking off July 22 in Wilmington, Del., and continuing on a run of 23 dates in ballparks across the country. Third Eye Blind also will play at select gigs on the tour.

Instead of obvious choices for venues, the tour will wind its way through towns slightly off the beaten path and smaller ballparks that bustle with enthusiastic crowds and homespun charm.